Repository of NbS guidance material

Resource description:

The NbS Guidance Repository is a collection of guides, handbooks, manuals, toolboxes, and other guidance materials. These resources are specifically designed to facilitate knowledge brokering and capacity-building on Nature-based Solutions (NbS) for a diverse group of non-academic actors. The guidance materials contain information on specific actions supporting the governance, planning, implementation, management, and monitoring of NbS or related concepts that work with nature, such as Green Infrastructure, Urban Forestry, and Ecosystem-based Adaptation. Additionally, they address challenges related to planning and implementing NbS, including issues with climate change adaptation, biodiversity enhancement, and environmental justice.

The repository is established as part of the European Union Horizon 2020 project, CONEXUS, to catalogue the current status of guidance materials. Many European-funded research and innovation projects similarly transferred their gained knowledge and perspectives on NbS through guidance materials. Different platforms, like OPPLA, bring these materials together, yet the focus is Europe-centric. However, as several projects have involved cases outside Europe, such as CONEXUS’ cooperation with Latin American cities, this repository specifically included guidance materials from or relevant to Latin America. Thus, the collected guidance material focuses on urban contexts in Latin America and Europe, but materials with a global emphasis are also included. The materials are available in digital format, as PDFs (portable digital documents) or websites, to ensure easy accessibility.

The guidance materials were collected from different avenues, such as published literature like the review of European NbS projects by Wild et al. (2020) and resource databases like NetworkNature. To supplement the collected guidance materials with more examples relevant to Latin America, CONEXUS partners and practitioners from the region who were engaged were asked to mention the NbS guidance materials they know about. Additional materials were collected through an internet search using the Google search engine in Spanish and Portuguese and through snowballing. As the focus is on materials targeted at non-academic users, scientific databases were not consulted.